


Under a Witch's Spell

by noiproksa



Series: Angeleech [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Powers, Angel Wings, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Castiel, Hurt/Comfort, Team Free Will, Touching, Wing Grooming, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-11-12 10:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18009083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noiproksa/pseuds/noiproksa
Summary: Cas is under a spell and touching Dean seems to be the only thing that can help him focus his powers.– Sequel to Angeleech, but can be read separately.(Intended as gen, but can be read as Destiel pre-slash.)





	1. Chapter 1

Dean was so glad that Cas was okay again that he didn’t notice anything was wrong at first. Cas was still healing after all he had been through. The first few days the angel hardly used his grace—Dean made sure of that. But then Cas was feeling better and that’s when it started.

The first time Dean noticed something was off, he and Sam were sitting in the bunker’s control room when Cas came in. They were joking around about something or other—Dean couldn’t even remember what it was, something to do with angels in any case—and Dean said, off-handedly, “Yeah, well, angels are jerks anyway.”

Dean didn’t even have time to add that he meant the _other_ angels, not Cas, when all of a sudden there was lightning in the middle of the control room and the huge shadows of Cas’ wings appeared on the wall behind him. They still looked kind of banged up, but it was an impressive display of his powers nevertheless, as always when he showed them off (which wasn’t nearly as much as Dean would have liked).

In the back of his mind, Dean was wondering why Cas was trying to intimidate him and Sam.

“Present company excluded, of course,” Sam was the one to add in an attempt to calm Cas down.

“Oh,” Cas said, looking over his shoulders as if he only just realized that his wings were on display. “My apologies.” The next second the lightning vanished along with the shadowy manifestations of his wings. Cas looked down at his feet and then around the room, anywhere but at them.

Had Dean’s comment really upset him that much? Just in case, Dean decided to mention, “You do know that I like _you_. It’s just your species that’s a bit douchey.”

“Of course,” Cas replied. After a beat of silence, he added, “I did not intend to show my wings.”

That should have clued Dean in. Instead, it was just a nagging thought in the back of his mind, but he didn’t fully realize that something was up until it happened again.

Cas was in the kitchen, working on an Enochian spell for their latest hunt. He was just about to add some flower petals to the bowl when Dean walked up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder in order to better be able to peek over his shoulder. Cas gave a jerk and the next second, instead of chopped up pieces, there was a beautiful blooming flower in his hands.

“Whoa!” Dean said, taking a step back and holding up his hands to indicate that he wasn’t a threat. “Just wanted to check on how the spell was coming along.”

“You should know better than to startle an angel who is in the middle of performing a spell, Dean,” Cas admonished him, as if they had had this discussion numerous times before. Then he turned his back on Dean in order to start chopping up the flower again.

“Sure, good to know,” Dean said and left it at that.

The stronger Cas’ grace got, the more his powers were all over the place. Dean could barely touch him without triggering his mojo in some way, which usually resulted in broken chairs, coffee mugs or even a broken laptop once (which, fortunately, had been Sammy’s).

When Dean and Sam finally confronted him about it, Cas explained, “I have not yet been able to ascertain what is happening. I feel a tingling in my throat and the next thing I know, my powers need an outlet.”

“So what, this is some kind of angel sickness?” Sam asked.

Cas shot him a hard look. “Angels do not get sick,” he said.

“Unless you’re low on power,” Dean pointed out. “Which—I can’t believe I have to remind you—you _were_ only a week ago.”

“Hang on,” Sam suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Cas. “A tingling in your throat?”

“That’s what he just said,” Dean noted.

Sam turned to him and repeated, “In his _throat_.” He raised his eyebrows meaningfully, and that’s when Dean got it as well.

“Son of a bitch!” Rowena’s tincture had been applied to Cas’ throat. _He_ had been the one to apply it, as a matter of fact. Of course, he had thought that it would _help_ Cas, not do something weird to his powers. “What has that witch done now?” he groaned.

He had known that they shouldn’t trust her. She better pray he didn’t get his hands on her… “And to think that _we_ were the ones to do the dirty work for her. She didn’t even perform the spell.”

“You should not concern yourselves with that issue,” Cas butted in because of frigging _course_ he would think that they should not ‘concern themselves’ with his problems. “I am sure I will be able to control my powers better if I focus on keeping them in check.”

***

Of course, Cas was _not_ able to control his powers better. Quite the opposite, actually. The situation started to escalate.

They were watching a movie together and Cas seemed enraptured with the storyline about an interspecies friendship up to the point where the dragon died. All of the light bulbs suddenly blew out and the whole power grid went down, taking the TV down with it.

Dean was pissed because they couldn’t continue watching the movie (even though it had almost been finished anyway), and Cas was apologetic as ever. On top of that, their angel was worried about the dragon and kept bugging them about it. (“Is he really dead?—There are some movies in which the dead don’t necessarily stay dead. Just like in real life.”) It took them ages to get the power back on and even longer to replace all of the light bulbs.

“But he was the last of his kind…” Cas was still going on about the movie, watching Dean and Sam do all the work.

“Yeah, but he goes on to become a new star in the constellation, so everything’s good,” Dean explained distractedly, as he was standing on the chair, screwing in the last light bulb.

“So in a way, he is not dead?”

Cas looked so hopeful at that that Dean could only say, “Sure.” Even though he was still a bit miffed at Cas for ruining the ending of their movie night, he had no intention to disillusion the angel who seemed to have grown quite fond of the fictional dragon. (And to think how confused Cas had been at the beginning of the movie when he had insisted that dragons were evil…)

“Okay, this is starting to get expensive,” Dean said as he was stepping down off the chair.

“You use fake credit cards,” Cas stated, unimpressed. “I would think it does not matter to you.”

“Yeah, well, it’s the principle of the matter,” Dean said. “Sammy?” he then turned to his brother for some assistance.

“I think we can all agree that your plan to get it under control on your own didn’t quite work out, right?” Sam asked Cas diplomatically. “So, just let us help figure this out, is all we’re asking.—I mean, we’re the ones that got you into this mess in the first place.”

“Well, _you_ were,” Dean corrected.

Sam shot him an incredulous look. “Really, Dean?”

“Just sayin’. You’re the one who called Rowena _and_ cooked up the ointment thingy.”

“And you’re the one who applied it.”

At that moment, the light bulb directly above Dean’s head blew out, making both Dean and Sam jump.

“Dude, seriously?!” Dean asked, rounding on Cas. “I _just_ exchanged it!”

“I don’t like conflict,” Cas muttered.

“Okay, no matter whose fault, let’s just focus on solving this, alright?” Sam suggested. “Dean, could you…” He motioned to the broken light bulb. “I’m going to try and get a hold of Rowena.”

“What can I do?” Cas asked, looking from Sam to Dean and back.

“Just… don’t break anything else,” Dean said. Then he sighed and said, “This is gonna be a long night, isn’t it?”

As if in answer to that, another light bulb blew out.


	2. Chapter 2

Of course, Rowena had seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth. She probably knew that they would be looking for her and if she were smart, she would never show her face again.

The one lead they did have on her whereabouts turned out to be a bust. The suspicious ‘witchy activity’ hadn’t been due to a witch at all (much less Rowena), and that’s how they ended up in a deserted alleyway, fighting a bunch of demons.

One of them had gotten the drop on Dean and currently had him against a wall when Cas stepped up behind him, laying his hand on his head. The demon didn’t burn out and slip to the floor, though, as Dean would have expected, but instead the demon’s battle injuries started to glow and then faded, leaving him stronger than before.

“Dude, you’re on _our_ side!” Dean yelled at Cas. “Stop healing the bad guys!”

Fortunately, the demon seemed as dumbfounded by what was happening as them, which was distraction enough for Dean to slip away and pick up a plank, with which he hit the demon over the head.

Sam had put a demon down, too, it seemed, but there were simply too many.

“Dean, watch out!” Cas yelled. While Dean had been checking on his brother, another demon attacked. Before he could reach Dean, however, Cas sent out a blast of energy, knocking them all off their feet. Sam was sent flying against a dumpster and with a loud ‘thud’ he went to the ground, where he remained motionless.

The demons scrambled to their feet to turn tail and flee.

Dean got up, too, and hurried to Sammy’s side, ignoring Cas’ mumbled apologies.

Sam was bleeding from the back of his head, but when Cas reached out to him, Dean screamed, “No!” his voice vibrating with barely contained anger. Cas stopped dead in his tracks, looking uncertain. “Don’t heal him!” Dean continued. “With your powers all messed up, who knows… You might end up smiting him.”

At that moment Sam groaned and started opening his eyes, making Dean sigh in relief. He’d just have to stitch his little brother up like in the good old days.

He grudgingly let Cas help him half drag, half carry Sam to the Impala, but he ignored Cas’ repeated apologies the whole way back to the bunker.

***

When Dean entered Cas’ room after having taken care of his brother, the angel immediately got up from the chair he had been sitting on and took an uncertain step forward. “Dean! I am so sorry…” he began for the umpteenth time. “I did not intend to…”

“No,” Dean interrupted him, holding up a hand to stop Cas’ apologies. “ _I’m_ sorry. I was worried about Sammy.—It wasn’t your fault and it wasn’t fair of me to take it out on you.”

They looked at each other for a moment and Cas nodded his head slightly, accepting the apology. “How is he?” Cas asked.

“Good. I mean, a bit banged up. But he’ll be fine.—He’s asleep for now.”

“I did not mean to use my powers like that,” Cas explained. He looked completely dejected and guilt-ridden, which in return made Dean feel guilty for having snapped at him earlier.

“I know,” he said and then repeated, “It’s not your fault,” to make sure Cas knew he didn’t blame him.

“This is extremely frustrating,” Cas admitted, gesturing around to encompass the whole situation. “Losing control over my powers…”

“I can imagine.”

“I don’t think you can,” Cas said a bit harshly. He looked away for a moment and when his eyes returned to Dean’s, he had regained his composure again. “For humans… It would be as if you lost one of your senses.”

Dean refrained from pointing out that Cas had been without his angelic powers before. No need to open old wounds. Instead, he said, “Yeah well… You lose one of your senses, your others are more focused. So can’t you just… rely more on your sight, or hearing? You know… the normal kind of senses?”

“Just because they are the only senses humans know, doesn’t make them the ‘normal’ kind,” Cas grumbled. After a beat of silence, he mused, “My favorite human sense is touch.”

“Okay.” Dean could work with that. “So, whenever you feel the tingling in your throat, you just focus on touching something. Sounds like a plan?”

Cas inclined his head, probably considering it.

Dean should have known that the suggestion would come back to bite him in the ass…

***

Sam was out for the count for most of the next day. Unfortunately, without him, a search for the spell Rowena had made them perform was pretty much impossible since Sam had been the one to mix the ingredients. They tried guessing what had been in the strange liquid, but they only got as far as ‘some sort of feather’ and ‘some kind of leaf’ and quickly gave up, deciding to wait for Sam to be back on his feet instead.

That’s why Dean spent most of his time trying to teach Cas to exercise control over his powers, Rowena’s spell be damned. They were currently in the control room, which they had chosen as a neutral location for their exercises, and Dean was quickly becoming impatient.

“Would you focus?” he groused when Cas’ hands started glowing with a white light yet again when he should have revealed the shadows of his wings instead (a task Dean had chosen completely at random, of course).

“I do not think the spell can be outsmarted,” Cas complained. They had been at it for quite a while and it wasn’t even noon yet. Mainly because Cas had accidentally stopped time for a couple of hours (which in return had drained his powers so that they had had to wait for him to be able to use them again).

“Again,” Dean ordered.

Instead of trying it again, Cas was sizing him up in a calculating fashion. Dean raised his eyebrows at him, silently asking why he was checking him out, but the next second, Cas just put a hand on Dean’s shoulder and then—whoa! There were the shadows of his wings!

“Cool!” Dean’s eyes widened as he was staring at them in wonder. He took a step back to see them better, thus dislodging Cas’ hand from his shoulder. Almost instantly, the wings were gone and instead a chair skidded a few feet across the floor.

From then on, Cas got a better handle on his powers by touching Dean in various ways. First, it was a hand on his arm—and he could easily read Dean’s mind. (A task they most certainly wouldn’t be doing again, since Cas said, “I did not know that _you_ felt responsible for Sam getting hurt. You do realize that it wasn’t your fault, either?”) Next came a strange half-hug that helped Cas move the table without touching it.

“You were right, Dean. Focusing on my other senses does help,” Cas informed him excitedly.

Dean hadn’t really meant to become the ‘something’ Cas focused on, but since it seemed to work... “Just don’t accidentally smite me.” He had gone for an annoyed tone of voice, but had probably missed by a mile.

“I would never smite you, Dean,” Cas said, looking at him with such a serious expression that Dean couldn’t help but roll his eyes fondly.

“I know. That’s why I said ‘accidentally.’”

Cas blinked. Then he simply said, “What should I try next?” He laid a perfunctory hand on Dean’s arm, waiting for the next task.

While Dean was trying to come up with one, he had to admit to himself that he kinda sorta liked being Cas’ ‘something.’

Of course, he should have known that nothing was ever as easy as that.


	3. Chapter 3

Of course, the whole touching business was not so much a solution to Cas’ power problems as it was a band-aid of sorts. After all, Cas couldn’t walk around all day glued to Dean. Whenever the angel was _not_ touching Dean and was caught unawares or overcome by some kind of emotion, his powers were still all over the place.

Fortunately, once Sam had fully recovered, he rejoined their efforts to find a cure. He wrote down the ingredients he had used to make the tincture and then had them pore over books in the library in order to identify the potion.

It took them the better part of a day, but ultimately, they (aka Sammy) found it in an old book about witchcraft. Apparently, it was a harmless confusion spell. The small print, however, pointed out that it could get dangerous for beings with magical powers.

“You think Rowena knew that?” Sam asked, brows furrowed as he frowned at the page as if it had insulted him personally.

“To be honest, I don’t give a rat’s ass,” Dean ground out. “I’m gonna kick her ass either way. She doesn’t just get to mess around with my… with Cas.”

Cas looked up at that and once Dean glanced in his direction, he had a hard time looking away again. He distantly heard Sam turning the page, but he was too busy winning a staring contest against Cas to care.

Only when Sam cleared his throat did he turn back around to his brother. “So, good news. There is an antidote.” He was studying the page in the book, a concentrated frown on his face. “Bad news on the other hand: We need some rare herbs.”

That’s how Dean and Cas ended up in a forest a good hour’s drive away from the bunker. Sam had stayed behind to make preparations for the potion.—Apparently, you had to keep stirring the pot counter clockwise for a couple hours while chanting a spell and dancing naked around the pot or some bullshit like that. Witchcraft! Dean’s least favorite craft…

In any case, Dean and Cas were on an easy mission. It was hardly even a two men job. Searching for and collecting a bunch of herbs—easy-peasy. Cas was mainly just there because… well, to be honest, because Dean hadn’t wanted to go on the trip alone. (And maybe because the angel was better at finding specific plants, but no way was Dean gonna admit that.)

It was just their luck to run into a Crocotta in the middle of the woods. It was about to attack when Cas stepped in front of Dean without hesitation, shielding him with his own body.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Dean said, pushing Cas roughly out of the way to step in front of _him_.

Cas immediately sidestepped him to get between the Crocotta and Dean again, explaining sharply, “They are after _souls_. I do not have a soul. Stay behind me!”

“Are you kidding me? After an Angeleech almost sucked you dry and with your powers on the fritz, I’m not taking any chances here,” Dean declared, once again stepping out from behind the angel to get in front of him.

“Dean, would you stop it…” Cas said, exasperated, as he tried to push Dean behind him again. Dean, however, wasn’t having any of it and stayed put, battling Cas’ hand on his arm away.

The Crocotta, in the meantime, was looking back and forth between them, a baffled expression on its face, seemingly unsure of what to do (or maybe who to attack first).

Before it could make a move (or a decision), Cas suddenly took Dean’s hand, grasping it tightly, and took a step forward, sending out an energy blast that knocked the Crocotta back a few yards.

When it scrambled to its feet, it had apparently understood that it was no match against two thirds of Team Free Will (even with one third cursed) because it hurried off into the woods.

Cas made a move to go after the Crocotta, but since their hands were still intertwined, it was easy for Dean to hold him back. “Bigger fish to fry,” he explained, earning himself a head tilt from Cas. “Let’s just put it on our list to gank for later.”

That’s when Dean realized that they were really just holding hands now, so he let go of Cas’ hand in order to continue their search.

***

They collected the rest of the herbs mainly in silence and on the car ride back to the bunker, Dean was still brooding over stubborn angels and their self-sacrificing streaks. He glanced at Cas, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat, looking out the window at the scenery flowing past them. Then Dean looked back at the road. Back at Cas. Back at the road.

“Is there something on your mind, Dean?” Cas asked, finally turning towards him.

“Yes, actually,” Dean replied, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “What the hell was that back there?”

“I believe we fought a monster.—And then let it escape because of… big fish?”

“Yeah, not that,” Dean said. “Not for nothing, but I’m clearly the more experienced hunter here. So I’d appreciate it if you’d let me do my job instead of getting in my way.” Dean turned his attention back to the road, feeling like he had gotten his point across and won that argument.

No such luck. “More experience?” Cas repeated incredulously. “I have lived millions of years before you were even _born_.”

“Yeah, sitting around on your ass up in Heaven, drinking cocktails all day,” Dean said. “Not exactly what I’d call gathering hunting experience.”

“I assure you, I have had no cocktails before coming to Earth.”

Dean shook his head and sighed. There was no getting through to the angel when he was like that. He might have to take a different approach and reveal a bit of what this was really about.

“Look,” he began, stopping to gather his thoughts. Then he just forged ahead. “I just… I care for you, okay? A lot. And I can’t lose you again. So just…”

He was about to go on to make a gruff remark about how Cas wasn’t allowed to pull shit like that again when suddenly there was a loud bang and then the car window on the passenger side shattered and Dean felt something push into his side. The car swiveled on the (luckily empty) road and Dean instantly hit the brakes, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened at the same time as he tried to pull over and get the car to a halt at the side of the road.

When the car finally came to a stop half-on, half-off the road, he looked over at Cas, his heart pounding a mile a minute—and did a double-take. Cas’ wings—his frigging _wings_ —were out in the open. Not just shadows, but his actual real-life wings. His right wing had gone through the window and his left one dug into Dean’s side uncomfortably.

“Uhm…” was all Dean could manage to get out. He tried not to stare—he really did—but it was near impossible with wings sprouting out of Cas’ back.

“My apologies,” Cas said, reached over to touch Dean’s shoulder, and the next second, the wings (wings!) were gone as if they had never been there. Since Cas’ right wing wasn’t blocking the broken window anymore, a cold breeze came in, making Dean shiver and finally blink again.

Cas let go of Dean, but the second he did, another bang resounded, and there the wings were again, this time folded closer to Cas so that half of his right wing wasn’t hanging out the window. On closer inspection (the not-staring thing didn’t really work out for Dean), that wing was bleeding.

Dean was still busy gaping at the corporeal wings when Cas reached out to him again, obviously in an attempt to focus his powers in order to make his wings vanish once more. Dean quickly evaded his hand, pushing himself against the driver’s door, and waved him off.

“You can’t keep your hand on me the whole drive back, man. That’s just weird.—Don’t worry about it, we’ll have the antidote and have it all figured out soon, anyway.”

Cas paused his hand on the way to Dean’s shoulder and let it fall back down into his own lap. When he didn’t say anything, Dean continued, “You might want to… uhm… heal that.” He nodded towards Cas’ right wing.

“What a thoughtful idea, Dean, I had not thought of that,” Cas deadpanned. Dean waited for Cas to heal his wing, but when nothing happened, he realized that Cas had actually used sarcasm correctly for once.

“What’s the problem?” Dean asked.

“It is not my vessel that is injured. The wings are part of my true form. I do not think my powers can heal it right now.”

“You’re welcome to get a power focusing boost,” Dean suggested since they had made a pretty neat team back there when they had routed the Crocotta.

“It is just a scrape,” Cas said, looking out the broken car window, making it clear that the discussion was over.

A lonely car drove past them and Dean was relieved that apparently, some asshole was behind the wheel who didn’t stop to offer help.

They actually ended up driving home with Cas’ hand on Dean’s shoulder so that Cas could keep his wings stowed away as to not arouse suspicion. It certainly would have been weird had it been anyone but them. As it was, Cas’ hand was a comforting weight and wasn’t bothering Dean nearly as much as he had thought it would.—Or at all.


	4. Chapter 4

“Finally! What took you so long? The potion is ready, we just have to add the—”

Sam’s eyes widened when, after stepping inside the bunker, Cas let go of Dean’s shoulder and poof! There were the wings again.

“Yeah. Awesome, right?” Dean asked, still giddy at the prospect of honest-to-Chuck angel wings, getting a dark look from Cas in return.

“What… Since when…?” Sam babbled, still taking in the wings, eyes almost comically wide.

“Good question.” Dean turned back to Cas. “I didn’t know you even _could_ manifest your wings for humans to see and touch.”

Sam seemed to have regained his composure a lot quicker than Dean and was doing a better job at not openly gawking at the wings. “Literally no one said anything about touching,” he pointed out.

But Dean wasn’t about to let himself be riled up. “ _I_ just did.” Then he explained, “He kind of hurt himself when he busted Baby’s windows.”

“Window,” Cas corrected and then turned to Sam to justify himself, “It was really just the one window. And it was in the way. Your cars are very restricting.”

“Hey,” Dean said, affronted. “No badmouthing Baby. She’s very spacious. Not her fault she wasn’t built for angel passengers.”

Sam had finally noticed the blood on Cas’ wing and grimaced. “Ouch,” he said sympathetically.

“Never thought I’d ever say that,” Dean began, moving further into the control room to the cabinet where he had stowed a first aid kit. “But I guess we have to patch up an angel’s wing.”

“No, you do not,” Cas objected. “Once we lift the curse, I can control my wings again.—Here, Sam. We have collected the necessary herbs.” Cas held out the basket to Sam, who took it and double-checked if they had everything.

“Out of sight, out of mind, huh?” Dean asked. “Nice try, but no way.” He had finally found the first aid kit and was putting it on the table, rummaging through it.

Sam, meanwhile, was looking at the contents of the basket and said, “This is great.” Apparently, the herbs had passed his inspection. “I’m sure it won’t take long to finish the potion with these.” With that statement, he hurried away towards the kitchen.

Cas, for his part, didn’t acknowledge Sam, but eyed the first aid kit suspiciously while Dean took out a sterile medical wipe pack, an antiseptic cream and a pair of scissors.

“May I?” Dean asked, motioning with the medical wipe pack towards Cas’ wings, using the scissors to cut it open.

“No.”

Dean stopped short of touching Cas’ wing and rolled his eyes. “Stop being such a baby,” he admonished, reaching for the angel once more.

Cas, however, evaded the touch by taking a step back. “You do not seem to realize that an angel’s wings are not something humans can just… touch.”

“Yeah?” Dean asked, stopping dead in his tracks once more before his hand had reached its destination. He furrowed his brows. “What happens if a human does? He spontaneously combust?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Explode?”

Again, Cas denied.

“Die some other kind of excruciating death?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. There is no death involved...” Cas said impatiently and Dean noticed that his wings quivered slightly.

“I gotta say, I don’t see the problem here,” Dean concluded, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

Cas crossed his arms, his wings folded behind him, out of reach. “I would not expect a human to understand.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re not explaining shit?” Dean complained. Cas had never been great at relying on them to help him through difficult times and Dean had about enough of that attitude.

He stared Cas down until the angel heaved a sigh. “It’s just for the closest of… and not even then, really,” Cas made a poor attempt at explaining, his wings making some movements as if he were gesturing around with them, his arms in contrast completely still by his sides.

“The closest of what?” Dean pressed, turning his attention away from the wings, even though Cas had folded them behind his back again when he had caught Dean stare. “Friends? Family?—’Cause I gotta tell you—I thought we were all that.”

“Of course. But still…” Cas was looking at Dean intently, maybe willing him to back down. But then he averted his eyes, sighed again and said as his eyes hesitantly found Dean’s again, “Just don’t…” He let his arms drop to his sides, relenting, his wings unfolding hesitantly. “Just… be careful. If feathers are bent the wrong way, it can feel highly uncomfortable.”

Dean let a smile spread across his face. “Don’t ruffle your feathers, got it.”

“Dean,” Cas warned. “This isn’t a joke. I mean it. Strictly speaking it is not allowed to let a human touch my wings. If I give you permission…”

“Yeah, okay. No inappropriate touches.” Dean winced when he realized that he had made yet another joke of the situation, probably proving to Cas that he wasn’t trustworthy enough to touch his wings. Now that he had convinced Cas, he was suddenly feeling a bit nervous, himself. Since Cas didn’t seem to appreciate him trying to cover his unease up with jokes, Dean added, “I promise,” his voice sincere to show Cas that he did take it seriously.

The angel stared at him for another moment before he jerked his head in a nod, giving permission for Dean to come closer.

This time, when Dean reached for Cas’ right wing, he wasn’t stopped. The feathers were surprisingly soft to the touch and Dean couldn’t keep himself from carding his hands through them. He straightened a few out, making sure not to ‘bend them the wrong way.’ Cas’ eyes were following his ministrations. Dean couldn’t quite believe that he was actually touching an angel’s wings. _Cas’_ wings.

Cas for all he had resisted earlier, let his wings droop and leaned into the touch, closing his eyes blissfully. Apparently he was finally trusting Dean not to mess up his feathers.

After a while, the feathers were as orderly as they were going to get and Dean realized that he was now really just petting Cas, stroking the feathers gently, so he cleared his throat and let go of the wing. Cas opened his eyes again just as Dean used the sterile wipe to dab at the wound, making Cas flap his wing once, almost hitting Dean in the face if he hadn’t ducked out of the way.

“Hey!” Dean yelped.

Cas ignored him and mumbled instead, “This is highly unnecessary. It has already stopped bleeding.” As if he hadn’t just visibly enjoyed the… wing grooming for lack of a better word.

“Yeah, well, toughen up,” Dean said because apparently Cas was _still_ not able to accept his help, at least not without bitching about it.

Once Dean was satisfied with his work and there was no blood left that he could make out, he put away the wipe and started applying the antiseptic cream to the cuts.

“So,” Dean started conversationally, keeping his eyes on the wounds while he was working. “World’s still turning even though a lowly human is touching an angel’s wings.”

When Cas didn’t comment one way or another, Dean continued, “So how come it’s ‘not allowed’?”

“I wouldn’t know. Ask my father the next time you see him.”

“Seriously?” Dean stopped rubbing the cream into the wounds to look at Cas. “Chuck is the one who forbid it?—Huh. Seemed like such a chill dude.”

Cas furrowed his brows. “At least I assumed that it had been God’s wish.” He appeared deep in thought for a moment. Then he said, his voice uncertain, “Maybe some of my more humaphobic brothers and sisters made up that particular rule…”

“Humaphobic?” Dean repeated. “That’s a thing?”

Before Cas could answer, however, the sound of someone clearing their throat made Dean turn around.

Sam was hesitantly entering the control room, carrying the bowl with the potion. “You guys ready?” he asked. “This tincture should better be applied fresh.”

“Yeah, all patched up,” Dean said, proud of his handiwork as he put the cream away and wiped his hands on his trousers.

Sam seemed relieved and he put the bowl on the table, using a pipette to suck up some of the potion. Then he walked up to Cas and said, “We have to apply it to your throat again.”

Nodding his understanding, Cas tilted his head back so that Sam could dribble some of the potion onto his throat. The liquid glowed on his skin and puffed out.

For a moment, nothing happened and Dean looked over at Sam, raising his eyebrows. Then, suddenly, the wings disappeared. It seemed like the potion had worked like a charm… or like a potion as the case might be.

Cas was looking from Dean to Sam and back, a smile on his face, but before they could really celebrate their win, Sam’s cell rang. He glanced at the display and stopped short.

“It’s Rowena.”

“I tell you, that witch is psychic,” Dean said. “Or she’s using a crystal ball or something.”

Sam shrugged and pushed the button, putting her on loudspeaker.

“Samuel,” Rowena’s cheerful voice piped up. “You left some rather ill-mannered voicemails. But I am ready for your apology and thank yous.”

“Are you kidding me?” Dean could barely contain his anger. “You just made the top of our to-gank list. If anything, _you_ should be apologizing to _us_!”

“Well, maybe not the _top_ ,” Cas amended. “There is still that Crocotta that bested us…”

Dean shot him an incredulous look. This was so not the time to start discussing who they should go after first.

“Crocotta?” Sam asked and Dean realized that they hadn’t filled him in on that yet.

“It didn’t ‘best’ anyone,” Dean defended his honor. _They_ had been the ones it had run away from, after all.

“Boys?” Rowena butted in. “Still waiting for my apology.”

Dean turned his attention back to the cell phone. “Yeah, keep waitin’, ain’t gonna happen.”

“The angel is alright, is he not?” Rowena pointed out.

“No thanks to you,” Dean grumbled.

“Big thanks to me,” Rowena contradicted him. “The poor lad was clearly in need of some affection, falling prey to an Angeleech and all.”

Dean exchanged a confused look with Sam. Was this witch for real? He wanted to exchange an exasperated look with Cas as well, but the angel had his gaze fixed on the floor, refusing to look up.

“I assume you had some touchy-feely moment and my spell helped you realize that you care for each other.—Always glad to help my favorite trio.” She sounded self-satisfied of all things.

“We have realized that before,” Cas interjected, sounding uncomfortable. “We didn’t need your ‘help’ with it.” He even made the air quotes even though Rowena couldn’t see them.

“Let’s count it as help for _expressing_ those feelings then,” Rowena said cheerily.

“Let’s not,” Dean retorted drily.

“You’re welcome,” Rowena simply said and with that, she hung up on them, smart enough not to wait for an apology that was never going to come.

Dean turned to Sam who had been suspiciously quiet during the phone call. “Way to help us out here.”

“I really don’t think she intended to _kill_ Cas…” Sam began, but Dean interrupted him.

“Is that our minimum requirement for being friends with someone nowadays? As long as they don’t ‘intend to kill us’?”

“It could be our minimum requirement for not trying to kill them in retaliation?” Cas suggested.

Dean shot him an incredulous look. It appeared as if he was outnumbered here. Still, he gave it one last shot, addressing both Cas and Sam. “She’s full of shit, you do realize that, right? She was just trying to talk her way out of us ganking her.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Not even Lucifer managed to kill her. I just don’t know if it’s worth the effort. She has been helpful before. We might need her help again some time.”

Dean hated when his brother was being all logical when all Dean wanted to do was find someone to kick their ass for laying a hand on Cas.

“Now, what was that about a Crocotta?” Sam asked.

Yeah, okay. Dean could go for kicking some Crocotta ass. He had not particularly cared for the way the Crocotta had eyed Cas, either. And if it was running for the hills from two thirds of Team Free Will, it should just wait to see them at full capacity.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the fic and as always, kudos and comments make my day so much brighter. :)
> 
> **People who kudosed this fanfiction also kudosed:  
> **
> 
>   ☆ **[The Exception](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449494/chapters/38518652)** (3.2k, _Dean says ‘yes’ to Cas & Cas possesses him._ Inspired by 14x03 / my need for a Dean & Cas hug.)
> 
>   ☆ **[Native Language](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16250996)** (2.7k, _Cas has lost his home a long time ago. Sam and Dean try to show him that he has a home right there with them. He belongs to their weird little family, after all._ )
> 
>  
> 
> [Rebloggable tumblr link](https://noiproksa.tumblr.com/post/183914870894/dean-cas-fic-under-a-witchs-spell-length)


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